Patterico's Pontifications

10/17/2008

FBI Investigating ACORN (Updated)

Filed under: 2008 Election,Civil Liberties — DRJ @ 4:14 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

The FBI has confirmed it is investigating ACORN for voter registration fraud:

“The FBI is investigating whether the community activist group ACORN helped foster voter registration fraud around the nation before the presidential election. A senior law enforcement official confirmed the investigation to The Associated Press on Thursday.

A second senior law enforcement official says the FBI was looking at results of recent raids on ACORN offices in several states for any evidence of a coordinated national scam.”

I hope the FBI interviews the former ACORN employees in this El Paso Times’ article:

A former ACORN worker alleges he was fired four years ago by the organization after complaining about voter-registration irregularities to the El Paso County Elections Office.

“I was punished unfairly for being a whistleblower, because I complained about what I observed at the ACORN office,” said Daniel Mahar, a bartender and a stock-market day trader.

The El Paso Sheriff’s Office investigated his complaint about alleged voter registration irregularities but dropped it after the district attorney’s office turned down the case for prosecution.

An entry in the 2004 report by Detective Neil Baker states “I was contacted by (Assistant District Attorney) Steven Spitzer that the requested grand jury subpoena would not be issued due to the circumstances surrounding (Mahar’s) termination from employment and the allegations made do not constitute other than misdemeanor offenses.”
***
Another former ACORN employee, Irene Galindo, told the detective “that ACORN, under the supervision of Jose Manuel Escobedo, has terminated almost all of the American citizen volunteer deputy registrars and replaced them with immigrants that are not eligible to vote,” according to the report.

Escobedo said Galindo, a former rising star in ACORN, was another disgruntled employee who was dismissed around the time Mahar was let go, and denied the allegations.”

Both were fired and may have an ax to grind, but it’s interesting that they were apparently fired after complaining about ACORN’s alleged ethical and/or criminal lapses.

I’m not surprised the local officials weren’t interested in pursuing misdemeanor charges but I hope the FBI is more motivated. Given the timing, though, I’m afraid this may go down a post-election black hole at the DOJ.

PS – Baseball Crank analyzes the relationship between Obama and ACORN if you need a refresher on why ACORN is particularly important in this election.

UPDATE: The Obama campaign has asked the DOJ to investigate the investigation:

“[Robert Bauer, general counsel to the Obama campaign,] wrote to Attorney General Michael Mukasey a day after the Associated Press, citing unidentified law enforcement officials, reported that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was investigating ACORN. *** Bauer said the news leaks are part of a coordinated effort by McCain’s presidential campaign and Republicans. They are “fomenting specious vote-fraud allegations and there are disturbing indications of official involvement or collusion,” Bauer said.

“It is apparent,” he wrote, that law enforcement officials are serving “improper political objectives” that could inhibit voter participation in the Nov. 4 election. The aim is to “suppress the vote and to unduly influence investigations and prosecutions,” Bauer wrote.”

— DRJ

37 Responses to “FBI Investigating ACORN (Updated)”

  1. The 2004 election in Washington State turned up a pretty fair pile of “things to examine later.” It basically all went through the shredders after the main election challenge. (Which was on a narrow slice of the issues.)

    Al (b624ac)

  2. The LA times feels left-out of the Acron scandal, so they will just have to create their own scandal.

    Voters contend they were duped into registering as Republicans

    Well its not a “scandal” just because liberals can’t read what they sign their own names too and you can vote for whomever you want, so what’s the problem?

    Rethug nonvoter fraud.

    ML (14488c)

  3. Regarding this story, I just read from Bloomberg (link below) through Instapundit that an Obama lawyer is asking the FBI for a probe into vote-fraud claims. Should I learn from this that in an Obama administration it will be best not to ask questions?

    (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=anlSbwVX9jJI)

    Richard (b53fef)

  4. ACORN had a bunch of computers stolen from their Boston office, and I’m wondering if this is a real theft by someone seeking to sell on either the hardware or the identity information stored on it, a theft by misguided right-partisan activists a-la the Palin Yahoo Email event, or possibly an in-house effort to taint evidence before an expected raid by authorities. I kind of suspect the first.

    Douglas2 (62fec6)

  5. This burglary is clearly a ‘Reichstag’ crime. Just like a mob restaurant arson. No surprise, these damn commies are just criminals anyway.

    billypaintbrush (e09c6f)

  6. I’ve updated the post with the Obama campaign’s response. I think it’s a related article to the one Richard mentions above and that Darleen blogs about here.

    DRJ (c953ab)

  7. I hear the g gordon libby has come out of retirement for McCain?

    Oldone-Dallas (f1a18c)

  8. That genius Rove is at it again. He filled out and slipped 200,000 phony voter registration cards in the Ohio democrat criminal Brunner’s purse while she was screwing the help.

    Scrapiron (6afa35)

  9. Obama thinks it is illegal to investigate illegality if it implicates The One’s friends.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  10. I demand an investigation of the investigation of the investigation!!!!

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  11. It’s boggles the mind how Dems have gotten away with their two-prong strategy in protecting groups that engage in voter fraud. They first like to say that voter fraud doesn’t exist, then in the next breath they tell you that any attempt to combat it is racist. Meanwhile, they love to create stories of minorities and the poor being disenfranchised at the polling station, stories which almost never hold up upon close scrutiny. It’s breathtaking how hypocritical they can be.

    JVW (277a50)

  12. “The aim is to ‘suppress the vote’ ”

    Where is the outrage! Don’t have the FBI investigate! Let the League of Non-existent Voters and Common Corpse look into this!

    Teflon Dad (b9958c)

  13. If we could figure out how to disenfranchise maroons and mental midgets,
    the Dems would lose half their votes.

    Another Drew (703fa8)

  14. Apparently, there’s even an Acorn International!
    The real Acorn

    Patricia (ee5c9d)

  15. I hear the g gordon libby has come out of retirement for McCain?

    What does that have to do with ACORN’s fraud?

    Has anyone figure out why the lefties have been dragging out Liddy’s name recently? I sense they believe it’s a rebuttal to questions about Obama’s long friendship and working partnership with Ayers, but for the life of me I can’t figure out how it could be.

    Rob Crawford (b5d1c2)

  16. Liddy is a fave target of the Left for the remarks he made on his radio show back in the Bubba day’s after some ATF/DEA/FBI events where he said if you’re going to shoot someone breaking through your door, go for head shots to defeat the body armor. Of course, being the good little Liberals that they are, they can’t avail themselves of that info since guns are evil, vile things that they could never possess even if the world was ending. Plus, one would never resist the lawful activities of the government, unless of course it was enforcing the Patriot Act.

    Another Drew (703fa8)

  17. Hey, Nanker, one question: is registering people for the wrong party such a crime? Does it change the way they vote in the general election? Is it reversible? Can it be changed at any time?

    I don’t having the wrong party affiliation on a voter card is nearly as bad as dead people registering and voting.

    Call me crazy…

    Steverino (db5760)

  18. #17: Steverino

    I read the article in the LA times this morning, I had to laugh one person from Ventura which is here in So Cal claims she was asked to sign some anti-crime petition but she had to register as a republican first. So she did!
    And now claims she was “duped”?

    I wouldn’t call that voter fraud, I would call that “I cant believe they fell for it”.

    ML (14488c)

  19. 15 ask Tokyo Rose. She’s brought up Liddy in rebuttal for Obama’s ties to Ayers and Dohrn. And when you connect the dots between Obama and Wright, you get McCain’s alleged close ties to a Christian preacher, whose church McCain did not attend, let alone for twenty years with his wife and kids. Another distraction is bring up McCain’s connection to the Keating Five scoundrel, even though he was exonerated and Clinton’s lawyer who was involved with the Keating investigation said that McCain was added to the fracas to make it appear to be both dems and republican scandal.

    Don’t forget Tokyo Rose, Mario backwards, Peter and assorted other motley Obamalickers that you guys vote Nov. 5th. for Obama.

    Nobama- bend over America I am Joe

    madmax333 (0c6cfc)

  20. Another Drew — they do seem to view Liddy as a counter to Ayers, to the point of apparently making things up about Liddy. Over at zombie’s blog, I saw a comment saying Liddy “conspired to murder innocent people over political differences”. Any idea what that’s about? Or is it another of those bizarro-land accusations where they take the comments of a flamboyant guy and spin it into a crime against humanity?

    I’m not an expert on Liddy, but I know for damned sure that his role in Watergate never rose to the level of violence.

    Rob Crawford (b5d1c2)

  21. 20. Liddy is just the left’s way of obfuscating the issue about the pals of Obama. I read most of Liddy’s stuff. He was loyal to Nixon and refused to implicate others. The judge threw the book at him. Unlike Ayers and Dohrn who were actually culpable in deaths of others, Libby paid for his crimes.
    I thought Libby came across as psycho at times. I know he had the urge to ice John Dean over Dean’s various lies. Few people know Liddy was an FBI agent at one time. I believe that investigators have reopened the issue of certain Weathermen crimes, which point to Bernadette Dohrn. The media seems to put an embargo on the truths about Ayers and Dohrn though. Better to investigate Joe the Plumber.

    madmax333 (0c6cfc)

  22. If Liddy wasn’t available, they’d be throwing Oliver North out there too.

    Techie (9251da)

  23. I’m not an expert on Liddy, but I know for damned sure that his role in Watergate never rose to the level of violence.

    Well, he DID suggest that the administration have him shot and killed to take attention and focus off of Nixon, and then pin the entire pile on his corpse…

    Though I guess it doesn’t count if the only person dying was him, and he was LITTERALLY asking for it.

    Scott Jacobs (d3a6ec)

  24. Liddy: When the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms thugs come to kill your wife and children, to try to disarm you and they open fire on you. When they come at the point of a gun, force and violence, when you’re going to defend yourself, use that Gerand [M-1 rifle]. That thing is 30-06, and it’ll take ’em right out.
    Caller: And yes, aim for the head.
    Liddy: Absolutely.

    Nanker Phelge (bec964)

  25. Amazing how Obama’s friends make Liddy look good, isn’t it, Nanker Phelge?

    Still baffles me how anyone can vote for Obama given that he is the political protege of a terrorist.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  26. Nanker – Any word on when the Obama campaign is going to release their communications with ACORN to aid the FBI investigation?

    daleyrocks (d9ec17)

  27. “Any word on when the Obama campaign is going to release their communications with ACORN to aid the FBI investigation?”
    Any word on when the WH is going to respond to questions about the firing of federal prosecutors? [Fired as we all now know for not filing prosecutions for voter fraud.]

    DRJ trusts Rick Hasen when he tells you what you want to hear, so why don’t you at least give him some benefit of the doubt when he doesn’t?.

    More fun
    GOP voter registration fraud case leads to arrest

    Nanker Phelge (bec964)

  28. Scott the last time you moved did you tell the locals to remove you from the rolls? Or did you just reregister in your new neighborhood? If so you’re registered twice.

    simple yes?

    Nanker Phelge (bec964)

  29. “Jacoby’s arrest by state investigators and the Ontario Police Department comes after dozens of voters said they were duped into registering as Republicans by his firm, Young Political Majors, or YPM. The voters said YPM tricked them by saying they were signing a petition to toughen penalties against child molesters. The firm was paid $7 to $12 for every Californian it registered as a member of the GOP.”

    The original story is here scott
    http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-me-fraud18-2008oct18,0,3505611.story
    “Dozens of newly minted Republican voters say they were duped into joining the party by a GOP contractor with a trail of fraud complaints stretching across the country.
    Voters contacted by The Times said they were tricked into switching parties while signing what they believed were petitions for tougher penalties against child molesters. Some said they were told that they had to become Republicans to sign the petition, contrary to California initiative law. Others had no idea their registration was being changed.”

    Nanker Phelge (bec964)

  30. Since we’re talking about the FBI…

    The thought occurred to me the other day that the FBI probably has a significant amount of info gathered over the years on Dorn and Ayers. I imagine that includes their contacts over some period of time in the past. It would be interesting to know if and when B.H. Obama gets mentioned. It would be one piece of evidence to clarify just how long they have known each other and under what conditions they met.

    Do such files ever come under freedom of information act laws, and if so, is there a specific time period?

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  31. “Some said they were told that they had to become Republicans to sign the petition, contrary to California initiative law. Others had no idea their registration was being changed.”

    Nanker – Even though what they signed said they were registering as Republicans. I got it.

    Back to Obama – Why won’t he turn over his records to combat voter registration fraud?

    daleyrocks (d9ec17)

  32. “…use that Gerand …”

    Wanker, the word is “Garand”!
    Come on by some time, and I’ll show you how it works.

    Another Drew (b13f9c)

  33. Speaking of records, when are McCain and Palin going to turn over theirs?

    snuffles (677ec2)

  34. Fascinating point as always snuffles.

    daleyrocks (d9ec17)

  35. Obama’s relations such as they are to ACORN are in the public record, What you’re demanding is what’s called in common parlance a “fishing expedition.” But if the Feds were to ask for something they’d get it. Still Myers hasn’t spoken to congress even though Bush has said he wasn’t involved so technically executive privilege does not apply; and most questions about the prosecutors’ firing are unanswered. And two of them are on record saying the attacks on ACORN are garbage. And now add a former head of the DOJ Voting rights program to the list. Meanwhile:

    John McCain’s campaign has directed $175,000 to the firm of a Republican operative accused of massive voter registration fraud in several states.

    According to campaign finance records, a joint committee of the McCain-Palin campaign, the RNC and the the California Republican Party, made a $175,000 payment to the group Lincoln Strategy in June for purposes of “registering voters.” The managing partner of that firm is Nathan Sproul, a renowned GOP operative who has been investigated on multiple occasions for suppressing Democratic voter turnout, throwing away registration forms and even spearheading efforts to get Ralph Nader on ballots to hinder the Democratic ticket.

    …As Republican Congressman Chris Cannon summarized during a joint hearing for the subcommittee on commercial and administrative law back in May 2008: “The difference between ACORN and Sproul is that ACORN doesn’t throw away or change registration documents after they have been filled out.”

    “…use that Gerand …”
    Wanker, the word is “Garand”!
    Come on by some time, and I’ll show you how it works.

    Blame the man who typed out the transcript son, not me. If you say your gun is bigger than mine I’ll believe you.

    Nanker Phelge (139099)

  36. Nanker – That is the same DOJ section of career bureaucrats (read democrats) that are attempting to prosecute a Republican candidate for Congress from California in 2006 for distributing literature which made the completely legal point that it was against the law for illegal immigrants to vote. That section is a fucking democrat controlled joke Nanker.

    daleyrocks (d9ec17)

  37. “That section is a fucking democrat controlled joke Nanker.”

    The prosecutors who were fired were registered republicans or independents, and appointed by GWB

    Nanker Phelge (139099)


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